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LIVING AS KINGDOM CITIZENS
THURSDAY, MAY 15
Matthew 5:1-18

Philippians 3:17-21

 

“…that they may see

your good works…”

 

LIVING AS KINGDOM CITIZENS
 
The Sermon on the Mount is applicable to God’s people today! How to become a Christian, and then to stay Christian? Jesus gives the answer here.
 
In His beatitudes, Jesus explained how people can be and should live as a citizen of God’s kingdom. A person is truly blessed if he is a citizen of God’s kingdom. In order to become a citizen, he must be “poor in spirit,” he must be thoroughly humbled before God. He must “mourn,” and “weep” for his sins, confessing all of them, and pleading for God’s mercy and forgiveness. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Ps 51:17). God will look kindly on the man who “is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (Isa 66:2). The Lord is “nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (Ps 34:18). Those who are thus converted, will “hunger and thirst after righteousness,” will be “peacemakers” by loving God and loving man, and will not waver in their faith when “persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”
 
Jesus then set up the ethical standards of His kingdom. The kingdom and its citizens are characterised by righteousness. The King must earn the righteousness required of His people. The Lord thus talked about His active obedience in Matthew 5:17 to 18 where He said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” That was His purpose or mission statement.
 
THOUGHT: We are in but not of the world.

PRAYER: Father, help me to live by the rules of Thy Kingdom.

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